Slack gives its desktop app a performance boost

Slack is making life easier for its Windows and macOS users. The collaboration software has been rebuilt for both Windows and macOS to make it load 33 percent faster and use 50 percent less RAM than before. Many Slack customers will notice the change, but it’ll be particularly evident for those who use multiple workspaces. The company has been working on this overhaul for two years, and they have been modernizing parts of the code along the way. The new underlying code is now multi-workspace aware, meaning it won’t create a standalone copy for each workspace and take up RAM for each instance. What the program does is reuse components and rely on a modern codebase. The app itself still runs on Electron, but all the UI parts have been rebuilt using React.

For those who use Slack calls, that feature should be faster as well. And when you’re offline or suffer from a bad internet connection, the app now caches your session better. The app doesn’t get an offline mode per se, but you can now look back at messages in a channel or view conversations you were having before your connection dropped. All these changes have started rolling out to Slack users now.

Source: The Verge

Google Drive app for PC and Mac will be shut down in March 2018

With the launch of Backup and Sync, Google finally announced its plans for the Drive app for desktop. Support for the app is ending on December 11^th before it gets completely shut down on March 12, 2018. If you’re still using the app, you might see a notification next month that it’s “going away” and that Google wants you to either use Backup and Sync or Drive File Stream, which is the enterprise version of the app.

Backup and Sync is the consumer version that can basically upload all the files you want to sync with it and works kind of like a hybrid Google Drive and Google Photos Uploader. Drive File Stream lets you access your My Drive files, Team Drives files, and even stream your files on demand right from your computer.

Source: The Verge

See the customizable CPU built from LEGO

There are many, many uses for LEGO these days so it comes as no surprise that even computers can be built out of them. Total Geekdom's Mike Schropp has managed to built his first saleable computer system that's compact and customizable. At 19.05 x 19.05 x 13.97cm, it's small enough yet still manages to house a motherboard inside. The base system comes equipped with an Intel i3-4360 dual-core processor, 8GB of memory, 120GB SSD, and Intel HD4600 CPU. That model's price starts at US$999. You can check out the full specs and the varying designs over here at Total Geekdom. 

Source: Gizmodo 

Microsoft to retire older versions of Skype for Mac and Windows

Microsoft wants to make sure your Skype use isn’t disrupted. The tech company announced that it will “retire” older versions of Skype for Mac (versions 6.14 and under) and Windows (6.13 and under) pretty soon. They did not specify what they meant by retiring but they just want to emphasize that updating now will prevent any disruption for the users in the future.

If that isn’t enough to make you want to upgrade, the new versions of Skype have features like free group video calls and cross-platform messaging. It might be best you listen to Microsoft and update your desktop app now.